Comparison Essay Between Oedipus the King and Death of a Salesman
Mohannad Zawi
October 31st, 2011.
You Should Probably Learn To Not Let Your Emotions Get The Best Of You There goes an old saying, “All anyone asks for is a chance to work with pride.” Well, it seems that some people work with almost too much pride. In order to consider the extent to which pride applies to Sophocles' Oedipus The King and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, consider the following: Oedipus and Willy both take extreme pride in their professions, their pride blinds them from seeing the truth of their situations, and their pride ultimately leads to their own demise/downfall, all of these invoking pity. There are many ways that pride can be attributed to pity just from the situations of these characters. From these extreme examples, we can come to understand how much of a role our emotions factor into our lives, and we too can learn how to better control them. Oedipus and Willy both take extreme pride in their professions, which makes us feel pity. “But sick though you may be, there is not one of you as sick as I. Your pain torments each one of you, alone, by himself – by my spirit within me mourns for the city, and myself, and all of you.”We understand that Oedipus is the king of Thebes, but as a local priest is begging for Oedipus to fix the wrongs in the city, Oedipus takes it upon himself to show how much more dire his situation is compared to the rest of the priests and the city itself. “They don’t need me in New York. I’m the New England man. I’m vital in New England.” When his wife Linda keeps pestering him, Willy decides that he cant talk to his boss about a job in New York, which would be more closer to his current house now. His pride believes him to be absolutely vital in justifying his painfully long-distance job to New England, a job that brings him a source of problems. “What do you say? You know something? And will not speak? You intend to betray us, do you, and wreck the state?” As Tiresias refuses to tell Oedipus information that
October 31st, 2011.
You Should Probably Learn To Not Let Your Emotions Get The Best Of You There goes an old saying, “All anyone asks for is a chance to work with pride.” Well, it seems that some people work with almost too much pride. In order to consider the extent to which pride applies to Sophocles' Oedipus The King and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, consider the following: Oedipus and Willy both take extreme pride in their professions, their pride blinds them from seeing the truth of their situations, and their pride ultimately leads to their own demise/downfall, all of these invoking pity. There are many ways that pride can be attributed to pity just from the situations of these characters. From these extreme examples, we can come to understand how much of a role our emotions factor into our lives, and we too can learn how to better control them. Oedipus and Willy both take extreme pride in their professions, which makes us feel pity. “But sick though you may be, there is not one of you as sick as I. Your pain torments each one of you, alone, by himself – by my spirit within me mourns for the city, and myself, and all of you.”We understand that Oedipus is the king of Thebes, but as a local priest is begging for Oedipus to fix the wrongs in the city, Oedipus takes it upon himself to show how much more dire his situation is compared to the rest of the priests and the city itself. “They don’t need me in New York. I’m the New England man. I’m vital in New England.” When his wife Linda keeps pestering him, Willy decides that he cant talk to his boss about a job in New York, which would be more closer to his current house now. His pride believes him to be absolutely vital in justifying his painfully long-distance job to New England, a job that brings him a source of problems. “What do you say? You know something? And will not speak? You intend to betray us, do you, and wreck the state?” As Tiresias refuses to tell Oedipus information that